1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a duplicating apparatus and a duplicating method of information storage disks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a duplicating apparatus and a duplicating method that automatically feeds, copies and prints information storage disks such as compact disks.
2. Description of Related Art
Information storage disks, such as compact disks (CDs) including Compact Disc-Recordable (CD-R), Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW), DVD recordable (DVD-R) etc. are often used to store digital information in a variety of formats. Generally, for mass replication or manufacture of information storage disks such as compact disks, stamps are typically used to transfer data from the master to unrecorded or blank compact disks. However, using the stamp method is only suitable to replicate an amount of a thousand or more disks. Otherwise, the average cost to replicate or manufacture each single compact disk will be expensive and not economic.
For home users or small business users, burners are another solution to replicate disks when only several or tens of disk copies are needed. In addition, automatic burners are convenient to the home users or small business users and save much time when duplicating the compact disks.
A typical automatic compact disk duplication system comprises a robotic arm to deliver blank disks among several working positions. The robotic arm catches one blank disk and conveys the blank disk to a tray of a burner to write data in. After the burner writes the blank compact disk, the robotic arm removes the recorded disk from the tray and conveys the recorded disk to a disk container. Then, the robotic arm catches another blank disk and places the blank disk to the burner tray to write. The operation of the robotic arm is repeated until an amount of the disk copies is achieved.
However, the mechanical structure of the robotic arm is sophisticated, which causes high manufacturing costs. Besides, the entire robotic arm is bulky and occupies a large storage space that is inconvenient to be packaged and/or transported. The automatic compact disk duplication system is expensive.
In addition, when the disk copy is completed, disk identifiers such as title of the disk, date, disk owner etc. are marked or written on the disk cover. Typically, the disk identifiers are hand written or printed by a printer separated from the burner. Hand to writing or printing the disk identifiers is inconvenient.
Further, as the storage capacity of the compact disk is increased, using the compact disks to backup data is becoming more common. When using the compact disks to backup data and several compact disks are needed, the copied disks may easily be confused if each compact disk does not have a unique disk identifier on its cover after the burner completes the disk duplication. This is also inconvenient for the disk duplication.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an improved automatic compact disk reproducing apparatus to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.